Scottish Art 101

By Rosser1954 at en.wikipedia[Public domain or Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Scottish Art 101

Art might not be the first thing that comes to your mind when you think
about Scotland. However, there is some fantastic art to be found in
Scotland's past as well as in its present days. Like many other countries,
Scottish art was influenced by the art from the European mainland as well
as by art from England. At some times in Scotland's history, Scotland
wanted nothing to do with England (and considering current politics, some
might say that this is still the case!), which is also reflected in various
pieces of art. Let's have a brief look at the various stages in Scotland's art.

Ancient Scottish art

Carved stone balls (petrospheres), something that seems to be unique to
Scotland, are the oldest pieces of art that have been found in Scotland. It
is assumed that the carved stone balls were seen as a sign of power or
prestige. They come from prehistoric times, and might have been in use in
the Iron Ages, too. More than 400 of those stone balls have been found and
can be seen in some of Scotland's museums.

Stones played an important role in ancient Scotland in general, and many
stone carvings have been found, e.g. cup and ring marks on rocks and
carving on lithic burial sites.

During the Iron Age, when Scotland was influenced by the La Tene culture,
other pieces of art started to emerge, e.g. elaborate gold torcs.

Middle Ages

When it comes to the Middle Ages in Scotland and the art from that era, you
need to know that Scotland was kind of divided in four distinct cultural
area. There were the Picts, the Gaelic, the British descendants of people
from “The Old North” and the Angles. While they were regionally reasonably
close together, they produced different types of art.

The Pictish stones are a good example of Scottish art from the Middle Ages.
Pictish stones can mainly be found in the North and East of Scotland and
were usually covered in complex carvings. Pictish art seems to be the one
that is the easiest to identify from the four styles. The main focus of art
during the early middle ages was on brooches, necklaces, and metalwork.

Of course, the Middle Ages were also a time of many changes on the European
continent. It was only natural that those changes also made their way to
Scotland.

The illumination of manuscripts was quite popular in Scotland, and most
works were – as in other European countries – of a religious nature. Even
though paintings were also done, only very few paintings from the Scottish
Middle Ages have survived. Why? Read on to find out!

The Reformation

While the reformation is an important part of human history, some parts of
it have not been very good for art in general. The iconoclasm is the reason
why the once so colorful and beautiful interiors of Scottish churches
turned into rather dull and gray places. It was not seen as good to have
paintings, sculptures and other pieces of art in a church – so they were
either moved or destroyed. This led to an immense loss of art that must
have been very beautiful.

The iconoclasm also meant that artists that had been working for churches
had to look for other people to work for. This led to a change in what the
artists painted and sculpted and the focus moved from religious motives to
a variety of other themes. Especially portrait painting for rich and
influential people turned into a quite profitable job for painters.

Painted ceilings and wonderful carvings were now something that moved from
churches to more secular places like fortresses, castles and the homes of
people who were able to afford the services on an artist.

Art in modern Scotland

From bronze sculptures to landscape paintings and modern art that only the
painter will ever understand: You can find everything in the modern art
scene in Scotland. In modern times, it is quite hard to describe what makes
one country's art stand out from the rest of the countries. One thing that
is noticeable about Scottish art (and in general British art – though the
Scots do not like hearing that) these days is that there is a revival of
old Gaelic themes. You can find many modern artists who paint Gaelic
designs or who have their own interpretation.

Of course, you will also find a lot of art that has something to do with
the independence Scotland would so much like to have from England (and some
of it is not very flattering for the English).

The most famous place for modern art is the Glasgow school (which is not
just one school but a collection of various art schools in Glasgow) as many
famous modern Scottish artists had learned their art there.